Global City Meeting - Bengaluru, India

With over 25 years of experience, Abe’s work transcends transaction, advisory, investigation, compliance, and litigation support.

He is a seasoned legal expert with deep specialization in Industrial Relations (IR) and Employment Law, advising clients across diverse sectors including pharmaceuticals, automotive, banking, and IT. His comprehensive understanding of core IR issues has enabled organizations to navigate complex labor challenges, including trade union disputes, settlement negotiations, and employee misconduct investigations — particularly in cases involving sexual harassment.

At the 2026 Global City Meeting, Abe leads the session on Sexual Harassment and POSH Committees: Trends and Challenges.

Dr. Augustus G S Azariah (Augie) has a very interesting career, having started work in Tech Sales, Consulting & Training while the IT industry was gaining root in India.

With about 3 decades of experience in the Human Resources function, he’s currently with Kyndryl (an IBM spinoff as the Regional HR Director for the Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa regions).

He has gained deep understanding of the constantly changing business & is regarded as a subject matter expert & thought leader in People Strategy. He has led public policy initiatives in simplifying the Labor Laws and was instrumental in significantly contributing to the Unified Labor Code, a white paper on simplifying Labor Laws that was presented to the government in 2008 and aimed at attracting foreign investments in India and increasing employment opportunities. This is one of the building blocks for the new Labor Codes in India.

He has held various leadership roles in IBM India Human Resources in the areas of Business HR, Staffing, Leadership Development, Succession Planning, Mergers, Divestments & Acquisitions, and he is an active proponent of the Future of Work and the Digital Transformation of HR.

He serves on various boards & committees as:

• Advisor for skills, Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, Min of IT/BT, GOK
• Management Committee member of the Bangalore Chamber of Industry & Commerce BCIC & Mentor to the Expert Committee for HR & Women’s Empowerment & Leadership
• Chairman for South India, HR Committee for ASSOCHAM
• Member, NASSCOM: National Association of Software & Services Companies
• Member, Board of Studies, Nitte Meenakshi School of Management
• HR Committee Member, AMCHAM, American Chambers of Commerce
• ISTD — Indian Society for Training & Development, et al.

He was recently invited to the UN Conference on Human Rights at Geneva to provide an India perspective on Human Rights and AI.

Recently, he was recognized as Asia’s Most Innovative Tech HR Leader by HRM Asia & The Times of India. He was also awarded the “Thought Leadership” award by the African Asian Chambers of Commerce & Industry. There are numerous accolades, as well as an honorary doctorate bestowed upon him for his contribution to the HR function and the Future of Work.

He is a startup mentor as well as a strong supporter of social entrepreneurship that focuses or supports the advancement of women. He also runs a Trust called “Looking Above” that focuses on women’s employability and STEM education for girls.

He likes to spend time traveling with his family and is also a middle-distance runner and loves to watch movies and listen to music when he has the time.

Chatrane Birbal is Senior Vice President, Practice, Policy and Government Relations in the Association’s Arlington, Va. office. In this capacity Ms. Birbal is responsible for leading CHRO Association’s government relations strategy, building relationships with individuals in the U.S. Congress, Administration and regulatory agencies that oversee matters related to large employers and their workforces, including benefits, diversity and inclusion, labor, safety, immigration, and compensation policy.

Ms. Birbal brings nearly 20 years of high-level experience working in government affairs at the federal level. Most recently, she was the vice president, public policy for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). In this role, she was directly engaged in many of the policy issues that impact the workplace and represented SHRM’s membership of over 300,000 individual HR and business executive members.

Prior to SHRM, Ms. Birbal was the director of government relations at the Council on Foundations, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit membership association of 2,000 grant making foundations and corporations, with assets totaling more than $282 billion. Ms. Birbal was also a federal legislative lobbyist at the American Psychiatric Association, a medical specialty society with over 38,000 U.S. and international member physicians who work together to ensure humane care and effective treatment for all persons with mental disorders, including mental illness and substance-related disorders.

Chatrane obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Buffalo State University in Buffalo, N.Y. and received her graduate degree of public administration and public policy from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Ms. Birbal currently serves on the Board of Directors of Women in Government Relations (WGR) — the premier, non-partisan professional society dedicated to advancing and empowering women by fostering professional development and growth opportunities through a community that supports women’s leadership in government relations. She is a member of the Tax Coalition, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among professionals in federal tax policymaking to encourage the professional development of women in federal tax policy and Birbal also serves as a Director-at-large on George Mason University’s Alumni Board.

Atul is a partner with Trilegal and has helped establish its labour and employment law practice. He brings 20 years of experience in this field and regularly works with international and domestic employers across varied sectors on their most complex HR-Legal issues. His practice covers both advisory and contentious work in the HR-Legal space, and his first-hand experience in handling several employment disputes in India gives him the ability to offer real-life and practical guidance and risk mitigation strategies.

Atul is based in Bangalore but as part of a full-service law firm, he advises clients throughout the country. He has been consistently ranked as a Tier-1 practitioner and a Thought Leader by independent research organizations such as Legal 500, Chambers and Partners and Who’s Who Legal/Lexology over many years.

Swati Rustagi leads the Employee Experience strategy & team for Adobe India, the company’s second-largest region, partnering closely with global and regional leaders to shape people strategies aligned with Adobe’s worldwide priorities.

With over 30 years of HR leadership across both global and Indian organizations, spanning FMCG, healthcare, financial services, and e-commerce, Swati has held impactful roles partnering with C-level executives and leading specialized functions such as rewards, leadership development, talent, employee relations, DEI, & talent acquisition.

Swati is known for building value-driven, high-growth ecosystems and has consistently helped shape resilient organizations through transformative business partnerships. She holds a postgraduate degree in Human Resources from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and an undergraduate degree from Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai University. She is certified in ISO, TPM, Change Management, and is also a certified OD professional via the National Training Lab, US.

Recognized for her contributions to the HR community, Swati has received the Margadarshak Award at FOSTIIMA for her work in DEI and was named one of Business World’s “Most Powerful Women in HR.”

She actively contributes to the broader HR ecosystem and currently serves as President of the National HRD Network, Bangalore chapter, a non-profit professional body for HR practitioners in India.

Nisha Shetty is the Head of Employee Relations for Optum, the Health Services division of United Healthcare Group. With more than 20 years’ experience in Employee Relations, Nisha has held several senior positions, including Vice President and Head of Employee Relations in India for leading financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase.

Michelle Swinden is the Executive Director, Asia-Pacific for CHRO Association, serving as the Association’s contact point for member companies in the Asia Pacific region. Michelle is based in Sydney, Australia. Michelle has more than 25 years of human resources experience in a regional Asia Pacific and global capacity. Prior to joining HR Policy Global, Michelle worked for the IBM Corporation for more than 30 years. She has extensive experience in the management of Employee and Labour Relations in the Asia environment, as well as a deep understanding of the impact of global labour relations on multinational organisations.

During her long career with IBM, Michelle held a variety of roles including Compensation and Benefits Manager for IBM Australia, Diversity and Inclusion Leader, Manager of Employee Concerns & Complex Employee Relations cases for Asia Pacific, and HR Executive for Employee and Labour Relations in Asia Pacific.

Michelle has a special interest in building and delivering enablement and information, allowing HR practitioners across all regions and functions of Human Resources to develop an understanding of the importance of effective employee and labour management. In addition, Michelle actively encourages companies to network and share their experiences, bringing an increased understanding of the challenges and solutions to building strong employee relations environments.

Michelle holds an Honours Degree in Psychology from the University of New England, Australia, and a Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Deakin University, Australia. She is a CAHRI Member of the Australia Human Resources Institute.

Alan Wild is Senior Advisor, Global Employee Relations to the Washington DC based CHRO Association and CEO of the consulting company Global Employee Relations Solutions. Alan’s 40 year career in employee relations includes work in the corporate, consulting and intergovernmental world.

Prior to returning to the HR Policy Association Alan was Employee Relations Director for Amazon in Europe and for major operations in the world outside of the US and Canada. At IBM, he was Vice President of Employee Relations and Engagement for the company’s worldwide operations.

As a consultant, Alan worked directly with more than 100 of the Fortune 500 companies in the United States and a number of major European, Australian, South African and Japanese enterprises. His firm also worked on assignments for the United Nations, The International Labour Organization, the International Red Cross, the European Commission and the Global Fund.

Finally, Alan worked for ten years in the United Nations System, as HR Director and member of the Director General’s senior executive team at the International Labour Organization in Geneva and as CHRO of the International Red Cross. He has represented the business community internationally at the OECD (BIAC), the ILO (as a Governing Body member), the United Nations (through the International Organization of Employers) and the European Union (through BusinessEurope).

Alan has worked, or undertaken significant human resource projects, in more than 90 countries in East, West and Central Europe, North, Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East and throughout Asia. He has lived in various locations in Europe, North America and Africa, spending one third of his working life in each of the US, the UK and Switzerland.

Alongside his employment credentials, Alan is author of a number of books in the area of employee relations and business advocacy and taught regularly at major universities in Europe, the United States and Japan. His Podcasts “A Walk on the Wild Side … Managing Employee Relations in Global and Millennial times” were regularly listened to by almost 10,000 employee relations professionals in 70 countries.

Alan was born in the UK and works comfortably in English and French. He lives with his wife Motoko, born in Japan, and their two children, born in Switzerland, and brought up in the United States, and has recently moved to the Cotswolds, England.